It would go a long way to even make it possible to get rid of cars. There are huge swathes of America which aren't within a mile of mass transit. And you can't fix that with more mass transit, because the density there isn't high enough to justify it -- a bus with one rider is worse than a car.

What you need is to get rid of zoning density restrictions. That's the only way for more people to live close enough to things for walking and mass transit to be viable.

> There are huge swathes of America which aren't within a mile of mass transit.

> What you need is to get rid of zoning density restrictions.

Most of those places were built for and are still dominated by the votes of people who don't want more density and transit options, for a variety of reasons, some reasonable, and others based in the nation's sordid racial history.

I don't agree with those people, but until the settled, voting population inhabiting those vast swathes gets significantly younger and more pro-transit and density, I don't see what you call for happening soon.

This is one of the few instances where doing something at a more central (e.g. statewide) level of government could be productive.

That's exactly what the state of CA has been doing with recent state bills that override local density restrictions.